One of my grandfathers originally trained to be a B-17 pilot in the US Army Air Force, but was busted down to tail gunner due to some training camp hijinks.

In 1944 He flew combat missions from England for all of 2 weeks before being shot down by flak over Germany. All his crew bailed out successfully. He ended up in Stalag Luft III, where the Great Escape occurred. He waited out the rest of the war as a POW.

He said that he fired his gun only once (and that was into the English Channel), because you had to clean it if you fired it. He also said that one time a Messerschmitt flew up right behind his plane, but he didn't open fire because "I wasn't going to shoot at him if he wasn't going to shoot at me."

My other grandfather was a JAG officer in the Navy. He remained stateside during the war, but IIRC was transferred to Italy after hostilities ceased.

Great Granddads, Granddads, etc.
 

My paternal Great Grandad was a conscript in the Tsarist army. My Dad's dad and his wife both "disappeared" during Stalin's purges. My Dad was rounded up and sent to Germany as a "guestworker" when the Germans occupied the Ukraine. Towards the end of the war he was conscripted into the German army and sent as part of occupation force to Denmark.

First chance he got he ran away, buried his uniform and gun, and was sheltered by a farmer who was grateful for the extra help around the farm.
My dad was just a teenager, he said he didn't want to shoot anyone.

My dad died a few years ago after a sad slow decline, and didn't talk much about the war. But did remember the retreating Russian army as it passed through his village during early Barbarossa. A lot of badly wounded guys, confused and frightened.

There's good and bad guys on both sides in every war, and as Gen. Sherman said "War is hell".

Thank God for Gorbachov and Yeltsin and the end of the Coldwar.